Deposit data

Important information to consider before starting the preparation of data for open or restricted access.

 

What type of data does DATICE accept?

DATICE receives and provides access to social science data in a broad sense, for example from surveys, interviews, tests and focus group research. The data cover all areas within the social and education sciences, from social activism and politics to individual living conditions, but also from other fields of study, such as the humanities and the health sciences. At present, DATICE's services focus on quantitative data, but in the future archiving of qualitative data will be made possible. In the meantime, interested parties are referred to the CESSDA Data Management Guide which provides various useful information on how to prepare qualitative research data for open access. A recent paper by Mannheimer and colleagues (2019) may also be of interest, where various matters related to open access to qualitative data are discussed. 

 

Submitting data to DATICE

1. The depositor confirms ownership of the data (or presents an owner transfer agreement) and that all direct personal identifiers have been removed from the data.

2. The depositor receives an information form (on metadata etc.) to fill out, and starts preparing the data for open access. DATICE provides guidance and assistance as needed.

3. The depositor submits the information form to DATICE for review, together with the data file(s) and data documentation. After receiving feedback from DATICE, the depositor makes the necessary amendments to the data and/or documentation, or gives the data service permission to make the necessary changes.

4. The depositor and DATICE jointly choose an access protocol for the data (i.e., open or restricted access).

5. A licensing agreement is signed.

6. DATICE finalizes the dataset and publishes it within the DATICE's Dataverse repository system. The assigned DOI number is sent to the owner(s) of the data.

Note that DOI numbers can only be handed out following the publication of datasets in the DATICE repository.

 

Things to consider before starting the preparation of data for open (or restricted) access:  

 

1. Ownership

Who owns the data? The owner is the one who signs the licensing agreement with DATICE. In the case of more than one owner, signatures of all parties are needed.

 

2. Datafile(s)

What is the status of the data file(s)? Has the data file been cleaned and is it in an acceptable format?  

 

3. Disclosure risk

Does the data contain any sensitive information that may expose individuals? Have all direct personal identifiers been removed from the data? How about indirect personal identifiers; is there a need for special handling of variables containing indirect identifiers (e.g., delete and/or encrypt certain variables or information)? Or perhaps the dataset should rather be published under a restricted access protocol?  

 

4. Metadata and data documentation

Is sufficient information available for compiling the necessary metadata and supporting documentation about the original study and its data? If not, where may additional information be acquired?